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Monthly Archives: September 2012

Con­grat­u­la­tions to our own Brian John­son and Hugh Litfin who designed the beau­ti­ful sets and lights for our pro­duc­tion of ONGOLDENPOND. They were awarded Elly Awards in Sacra­mento on Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 23rd.We con­grat­u­late and and thank them for shar­ing their amaz­ing tal­ents with us! Pho­tos to follow!

Last night was the first rehearsal for WHITECHRISTMAS. First nights are always fun and very infor­ma­tive. It is the first time that the cast is together to read through the show and hear the music. Before the read-thru starts the stage man­ager always has announce­ments to make, there are forms to be filled out, and basic rules, and sched­ul­ing appoint­ments for the cos­tumers to take mea­sure­ments. Then we get down to it. Every­one is seated around tables and intro­duces them­selves and says what role they are playing.

Last night I was able to show some pic­tures that our designer, Kenichi Taka­hashi, had sent me from New York, so that every­one can see what the con­cept. I am not going to share that with you, you will have to come see the show for that! Then we play the over­ture from the CD and we are off and run­ning! This show is based on the 1954 film of the same name that starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rose­mary Clooney, and Vera Ellen. In our pro­duc­tion those roles are being played by Shaun Baker, James Reed, Lydia Merriam-Pigg and Tiffany Davis. There is more music in the show than in the movie, and some great Irv­ing Berlin favorites have been added. We read through Act 1, then take an inter­mis­sion, and then we are back from Act 2.

As a direc­tor, the first read is very impor­tant and infor­ma­tive. Although your cast is just read­ing and start­ing to find their way through the script, you get a sense of what they will be like, and also starts you think­ing about char­ac­ter points that you want to stress when stag­ing starts. It also sets your mind at ease, or not, that you have made the right choices in cast­ing. I did make the right choices, because cast­ing is a huge part of what makes the show work.

Tonight we start, and over the course of the next 7 weeks, WHITECHRISTMAS will be born. A rather short preg­nancy, don’t you think???!!!

We have assem­bled a won­der­ful group of peo­ple for the show. I am work­ing again with the won­der­ful Eve­lyn Bar­ney, who chore­o­graphed 42NDSTREET for us. Eve­lyn is a very kind and warm taskmas­ter, and all who work with her want to please her. We have some new tap­pers in the show, and it is indeed thrilling to see them learn and grow. James Sny­der is my assis­tant direc­tor, Cyd Lobb is mak­ing her SCT debut as Stage Man­ager, and my good friend and col­league, Elaine Sac­ulla is the Pro­duc­tion Super­vi­sor, and she will over­see and men­tor Cyd with this big pro­duc­tion. Elaine has lit­er­ally done it all. She acts, she has worked crew, she has been prop mis­tress, stage man­aged (SWEENEYTODD), and directed last season’s I DO, I DO!. I love her atten­tion to detail, and I always feel like I don’t have to worry with Elaine around.

So, hope­fully, this has given you some insight into the begin­nings of a show. I will post more as we progress, and maybe we will get some video footage and photos.

The audi­tion process is in full swing. Tonight is the call­backs, and cast­ing choices will be made. There are no call­backs for the ensem­ble. We saw what we needed dur­ing the two nights of audi­tions. Tonight is for prin­ci­ple roles and smaller roles. Look here tomor­row for the full cast list!!!

HELPSCTSTAYINBUSINESS

Even with every seat filled at every per­for­mance, ticket sales pay for only about 70% of the cost of pro­duc­ing a show. You can help elim­i­nate this fund­ing deficit by donat­ing $10 or more directly to SCT, a 501c3 non­profit orga­ni­za­tion. Thank you!

60 Years of SCT

Founded in 1950 by Frank Jones and Clyde Nielsen, Stock­ton Civic The­atre is one of the three old­est com­mu­nity the­aters in Amer­ica. We pro­duce six shows every year — four musi­cals and two plays, plus a sum­mer youth pro­gram per­formed by stu­dent actors.